Outside of the gobsmackingly beautiful coastline we live on, the other great thing about where we live is the community. During the last Illawarra Festival of Architecture & Design (IFAD), I met so many engaged people interested in our local built environment. I love the opportunity to have a yarn with locals about all things architecture and the future direction of our little niche in the world. One of these encounters has led me to think about street activation. And no, that’s not anything to do with utilities!

You would know street activation if you encountered it. Think tree-lined street with canopies that extend over the road. Wide pedestrian sidewalks that include things like planters, urban seating, outdoor dining, art, water fountains, kerbside kiosks and enticing glass fronted restaurants bustling with internal energy. Many famous European cities do this really well such as Paris, Berlin or Barcelona. More locally, there is Crown Street in Surry Hills or even closer there’s that one-way section of Wollongong’s own Crown Street just East of the Mall.

Unfortunately, I don’t think there are many other spots that you can find good street activation in our hood. The Southern side of Thirroul has some elements but unfortunately with the busy-ness of Lawrence Hargrove Drive, it always feels dominated by through traffic. Bulli village suffers this even more having to take the brunt of traffic heading up the Bulli pass.

There is a lovely scene now on the corner of Raymond Road with the al fresco diners sitting outside of Ciro’s. We need more of this! I think we can do a lot better than what we have currently and whilst we’re likely not going to solve the traffic burden, I’d love to see some of these urban elements starting to make their way along our commercial streets.

I’m going to pick on Thirroul because it’s where I do most of my shopping and errand running. Firstly, I think we need more street trees and not just the odd palm tree that offers zero canopy but some decent sized shade providing behemoths like the two figs either side of the railway bridge. There’s nothing better than jumping into the shade of one of these beauties on a hot summer’s day! They’re a big commitment, but in the long term, they’re worth it!

Secondly, we need to widen the footpaths or create some sort of buffer between the traffic and the pedestrian so that when the next Harley-Davidson or exhaust braking truck blasts past, one doesn’t jump out of their skin from the sheer decibels. The East end of Crown has effectively done this by absorbing a lane of traffic and slowing the other lane down to a comfortable 30km/h. Bit trickier to achieve that up Thirroul way but I’m sure there’s some elements we can introduce.

Thirdly, I’d love to see some more urban seating about the place. Outside of the Thirroul Community centre, the only urban seating exists at the bus stops or in the very sad looking and under utilised gazebo structure in WF Jackson Park. These seats could occupy the some of the feeder streets adjacent to Lawerence Hargrave Drive. These give the chance of a momentary break from carrying the shopping or if playfully designed a chance for a kid to undertake some balancing act on their way home from School.

With all that in mind, I’m currently working up some ideas for some urban seating out the front of Franks Wild Years on Raymond Road.

I would love to hear your thoughts on what you think works well for urban seating and if your travels you’ve come across some great examples where you’ve been able to sit and ponder and enjoy some lovely part of the world and felt part of an active street frontage!

Feel free to reach out via email to ben@wollenarchitecture.com.au or write to me care of the editor.